Physics for Poets

As an undergraduate English major, I wanted to take a physics course because I was fascinated by all the discoveries being made in quantum physics and because I have always had this interest in time and space. My well-intentioned high school guidance counselor had steered me away from physics because I wasn't a good math student. I'm not sure she was correct, especially since she sent me into AP biology which was a big mistake.

In college, I had no room for physics in my schedule and probably would have had issues with the math but I thought I might be able to audit a class. There was a section for non-science majors that was known as "Physics for Poets." I asked the department head if I could audit the class and was told I could not. But it was big lecture hall class and I was sure no one would notice my presence. I went to the first class, got a syllabus and picked certain dates that I would attend. I attened most of the classes. I often wrote poems or notes for poems during class. I even asked and answered a few questions along the way. I skipped the tests and exams, of course. 

I came across an article this past week, "Physics and Poetry in Radical Collaboration," by Amy Catanzano. She writes:

Quantum physics, in my view, uses unacknowledged poetic principles to describe the properties of quantum phenomena such as uncertainty, observation, superposition, and entanglement. In the principle of indeterminacy or the uncertainty principle, a subatomic particle’s future position and momentum cannot be known with certainty, since its present state is measured in probabilities; in poetry, ambiguities that arise from uncertainty can be a form of artistic depth. 

The author is a professor and the poet-in-residence at Wake Forest University, and the author of three books and multimodal poetry projects involving physics. She is the recipient of the PEN USA Literary Award in Poetry and other honors.

Catanzano argues that for art-science connections to reach their full potential, the two fields should be conducted and theorized in union.

Neither physics nor poetry are totalizing efforts leading to absolute truth. When theorized and conducted in union, both fields become far more wondrous: they carry new forms of information and experience, produce new ideas and technologies, and challenge dominant belief systems about the universe. It is the evolution of our questions, and not just our provisional answers, that advances scientific, artistic, and societal progress.

Here is the opening of her poem "Higgs  Boson: The Cosmic Glyph"  (click link for full poem)

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